While on vacation in early August I was able to watch in amazement as Michael Phelps pulled gold medals out of that Chinese, chlorine tank.
I was on the swim team in High School. That was the last time I was in such good physical condition. All I did was eat, sleep, swim and fall asleep in class. I fell asleep because my resting heart beat was so low I nodded off. But I won a few medals in my day as well. People who have never swam competitively don’t realize one thing the water teaches you – we are land creatures. Water is really not our element or friend – especially heavily chlorinated water. That’s why swimmers wear goggles. And sometimes they get loose and the chlorine burns your eyes. It is like looking through a windshield in a car wash. That’s what happened to Phelps in one race with one eye filling up with water but he still won. He’s is really a fish, an alien being from the planet Aquarius to be able to win that record amount of gold. He may get his mug on cereal boxes and be a millionaire. I just eat golden flakes of cereal and remember.
Let me tell you a true story about my genesis in aqua sport.
My first 50 meter race was not in my home pool but in Milwaukee. It was an old pool with bad underwater lighting. Made it hard to see when you were coming to the wall to do your flip turns. The gun went off and I had a quick bolt of a start off the blockand was ahead already at half the pool length. I knew I was going to take first until I came to something that looked like a wall…
I made my flip turn only to have both heals land on top of the edge of the pool. Nothing to push off from and I hung there upside down like a pale trout flapping in the water. (Stop chuckling). Setting myself free I pushed off the wall and finished dead last. My heals were inflamed and swelling. When the meet was over and I went to the locker room I could not get my shoes on over my heals. I walked gingerly to the yellow bus in socks for a painful ride back to Racine.
“You had ‘em beat, Pedersen, until you decided to wave your toes at the crowd,” said coach Erickson. “Next time we are in an unfamiliar pool just practice your flip turns before the meet begins. I don’t think your heals will ever want to experience that again.”
They never did. And I was never again a “heal” for the Park Panther swim team.
